(gentle techno music)
- Welcome back to Triathlon Training Explained
powered by TrainingPeaks.
Now this week, we are talking race week.
And by that, I literally mean that final week of prep
leading into a race.
- Yeah, now this is a really crucial time
because you've no doubt spent weeks or even months
prepping for the event, but what we do
in this week leading into the race
can have a really large impact on our performance.
- Yeah, wouldn't it be a shame
to throw all that hard work away
due to that final week of prep being in absolute shambles.
I have done that in the past, I will admit,
but fortunately I've made that mistake
so hopefully you guys never have to.
- Yep so, we're heading off to Frankfurt
for the European IRONMAN Championships this week.
Now, although we're not racing,
we're definitely going to treat this as a race week
and try and share our do's, don'ts, and what you can do
to get yourselves through the week as best you can.
(energetic music)
- Right then, it's important to remind yourself
that in this final week very little can actually be done
to improve your fitness at this late stage.
So don't go out doing any panic training or anything crazy
in the hope that you're going to bump that fitness up.
However, you can certainly prime your body
to make sure that you're arriving feeling fresh
and firing on all cylinders for race day.
- Yeah, so what we're going to do
is tackle this from the point of view
of a standard Sunday triathlon race
and work back from the Monday of that week
right up to race day.
Now on that note, I'm sure a lot of you are wanting to know
what our thoughts are on a taper.
And for those of you who don't know what a taper is,
it's essentially a reduction in our training
in the days leading into a race
with the aim of getting to race day feeling in optimal shape
or at least that's the plan, isn't it?
- Well, yeah, and there are all sorts
of different variations of the taper
and different thoughts and process on it,
so we're not going to get too bogged down
in those different methods.
However as a general rule of thumb,
it is a general reduction of the volume
over the week or during this taper period.
However, and it's a big however,
we do maintain some level of intensity throughout that.
Now, let's say for instance,
you're normally training on average 10 to 12 hours per week.
During this taper period or during this final week at least,
we should probably be looking at somewhere around
six to seven hours of total training for the week.
- Yep, but it isn't all about the taper.
So we're also going to chat about
all the other things you need to think about
on a day by day basis,
and we're going to start now on the Monday.
- Well, this is a really good point to actually check over
all the kit that you're going to need for race day.
And hopefully you have done this prior to race week,
but it's always good to make doubly sure.
So if anything needs fixing, replacing, or whatever,
you've got loads of time to get that sorted,
and a bike is a good example of that
because there is nothing worse
than having last-minute bike worries
and rushing around bike shops
in the last couple of days before a race.
So, at least by checking over your bike
and also its race set-up on a Monday,
you've got plenty of time to get
any last minute issues or worries sorted.
Now, in terms of the training,
a lot of people like to treat Monday almost like a day off,
allowing the body to absorb all that hard training
that you've been doing and simply recovering,
almost like you're hitting the reset button.
Now, obviously this is entirely personal.
Some athletes out there actually like to do
a similar sort of thing later in the week,
which we'll get onto later on.
- Okay then, Tuesday is an ideal time
to get your last quality run session in.
And it's universally been known as run day by many athletes,
so I suppose it'd be rude to break that habit, wouldn't it?
But we're not saying you have to go do
your last big killer run session or whatever,
but just getting a little bit of quality
is an excellent idea.
- Yeah, exactly, so let's say you are used to doing
something along the lines of five by 1k
at 5k run pace for example.
Come race week, you might want to knock that down a little,
so you're just doing something simply like three by 1k
at the same kind of race pace.
Or you could even break it down a little bit further
to eight by 400 meters with nice recovery between each.
All of which are good sessions,
but they're not, hopefully, going to leave you
on your hands and knees, which is fairly important
given that we're going into race week.
- But of course if you're not used
to doing a run session of note, that's totally fine too.
If you just run by duration, or by distance
then that's excellent as well.
If perhaps you just do 10k running
a couple times a week, or say 50 minutes of running,
just make one of those sessions
last time you do it on the Tuesday,
and just back it down to, say, 8k or perhaps 40 minutes.
Right so we're at four days out from the race now
on Wednesday, and that's a pretty good time
to start thinking about giving your body
a little bit of an MOT, some TLC,
whatever you want to call it, and start thinking about
getting yourself ready for race day.
So good thing to think about doing, on that note,
is some stretching or even a massage.
Things that just start getting yourself
a little bit loosened up and prepped for racing, really.
But, these two things you have to be careful with,
especially if you don't do them so often,
because they can kind of shock the body in many ways.
Especially a really deep sort of stretching session,
you need to be careful of that.
You don't want to that really close to the race,
and very much the same with a massage.
As much as they can leave you feeling nice and relaxed,
I've often found that the day after a massage
you can actually feel a little bit lethargic or even,
dare I say it, a little bit worse than you thought you would
because you're just getting everything out of the system
and you don't want that to be happening
the day before the race.
So just be sure that you've given yourself
a little bit of advance warning,
and that's why we think Wednesday
is the best time to do that.
Okay, so Mark and I are actually off to Frankfurt
fairly early tomorrow morning, so that means
we've got to get everything done
and packed up by this evening.
Thursday and Friday are often a fairly popular traveling day
for events that aren't too far a field,
so just be mindful of that when you're getting ready
in this race week prior to heading away.
And on that note, if you're riding today
then try and get that done nice and early
because you need to leave time to pack the bike up,
get all your kit done as well,
so you're not running around stressed
and getting hardly any sleep.
It is also advisable not to get over-ambitious
with training that you're doing today.
Don't do any crazy sessions because last thing
you want to do is get onto the flight tired,
especially 'cause these seats on planes are often
really quite small, and you can be all scrunched up.
So, just take things nice and easy today.
Okay, so today is Thursday, which means travel day for us.
And although we're not going to give you a blow-by-blow account
of how to get yourself to your race venue,
we will talk about a few tips and things
that we've learnt over the years
to just make it a little bit less stressful,
and means that you're just feeling
a bit more fresh when you get there.
Now, in terms of getting to and from, say an airport,
if that's how you're traveling to your race,
I always like to stop off at service stations,
a bit like here, so leave a bit of extra time
in your travel plan so you can do that to get out,
have a little walk around, stretch,
coffee or a drink of water, or something
just to stop you being in that confined space
of a car, in a plane, in a car for a long period of time.
Now another you that you can maybe do if it is a flight
or a long train journey, say, or even a long car journey,
is pop some compression socks on,
something that I've always liked to do.
It really helps with keeping the blood flow
in your legs especially, and it just makes you feel
a little bit fresher when you get to the other end,
I feel, so anyway, always done that when I'm racing.
Yeah, now another thing that we advise
with getting the legs flushed out,
is some light exercise when you get to where you're going.
Now the simplest thing that we'd always suggest
is, say, a 20 to 30 minute jog.
I always used to like doing that
because it's just really time efficient,
easy to get out of the door
and feel like you've done something.
If, however, you've got a bit of time when you get there,
building up the bike is a nice idea too.
Make sure you check that everything's okay of course,
but get out and just do a nice simple high cadence spin.
But whatever you do, run or bike,
just make sure you start things off nice and easily
so you can wake up your legs, so to speak,
after that day of traveling.
And finally, a curveball I suppose, is you could actually
treat this day of travel as a complete rest day.
An awful lot of athletes do actually do that
because they just feel like it's going to be too much
to try and squeeze into their day,
and they're going to be on their feet for a long time,
so they just like to take the day as a day off,
a bit like we suggested for the Monday as well.
- We're into Friday, at these larger events such as this one
there can be quite a lot to do.
We've got to register for the event,
we've got our race briefing,
and then not to mention, the expo.
- Yeah but it is really crucial
that you remember what you're actually here for,
and I obviously have to get registered,
it's a pretty good idea to go along to the briefing as well,
but you just want to limit how much time
that you're spending on your feet.
So as much as popping into the expo is a nice idea,
just try not and traipse around in there all day long.
- Yeah, there can be a lot to do
and there can be a lot of distractions for sure.
Now another thing you might want to throw into there
is also a course rec, you know.
That may be just cycling part of the course,
probably not the whole course on Friday,
or maybe even driving that whole course.
Either way, just make sure that you stay well hydrated,
well fueled, and stay stay out the sun where possible.
- But you definitely want to think about
getting some training done on a Friday as well,
and a little bit of everything's not a bad idea.
There's often a swim recky today or possibly tomorrow,
so you can have a look into that.
But as Mark says, doing a little bit of biking and running
and taking in the course as well
is a great way of killing two birds with one stone.
- And then we are into Saturday,
which can be a bit of an admin day
for all these bigger and longer events.
- Yeah, absolutely, and at these events,
most often you've got to be organized the day before
'cause they usually require you to drop off your kit
and most often your bike as well.
So, you just need to make the day before race day
nice and organized so you're not getting yourself
stressed and a little bit of a muddle
before you're getting ready to race.
- Yeah, exactly, and depending on when those drop-offs are,
or where they are throughout the day,
I would really recommend trying to get some short
last-minute sessions in around then,
and I like to call these sort of leg sharpeners, or openers.
I personally don't like to do a swim
the day before race day, but that is entirely personal
so do what works for you.
However I do like to get a bike in,
which I normally try and do before before all the drop-offs,
and obviously before the bike drop off,
and then a short run after all of that.
- Yeah, so a nice bike session
that we both would like to do over, say, half Ironman
or perhaps even for an Ironman as well,
is about 35 minutes in total, 15 minutes
as a nice easy zone 2 warm-up, high cadence would be good,
and then into a main set, effectively,
of three minutes, 70 to 80% of your FTP,
last 30 seconds of that pushing above FTP.
And then you've got a nice 10 minutes of active recovery
into 30 seconds max, just to open up the pipes
and warm your lungs up a little bit,
with five minutes of zone 2 warm-down.
- Yeah, and that can be really easily adapted
for different distances as well,
and not forgetting it's also just a really good opportunity
to do those last-minute checks over the bike
to make sure everything is working okay
before we then go to drop that bike off and all our bags.
And then once we have done that,
and that's all out of the way,
I'd suggest just heading out for a really simple
just 20 minutes jog, finish that off
with a couple of accelerations of around 50 to 60 meters
where you just build up to race pace
and slightly above that.
And that's just a really nice way
of really waking the legs up, getting them feeling fresh
without putting too much stress on the body.
- Yep, and then we're into food time.
You can start looking into getting
a nice and early evening meal.
Stick to things that you know.
Don't go wild and looking into trying the local cuisine,
that's not the best to try it, the night before.
Get all that done nice and early
so you can get off to your bed in good time.
- And then it is time for race day.
- It sure is and that means setting that alarm really early,
I'm afraid, because you have to get up
for that breakfast to be digested in advance of swim start.
Good advice is often to be about three hours before,
but that is an awful long time given our early Ironman start
so as long as you're about two hours before,
that should be enough to make sure
whatever you've had is through your system
before you get down to your swim start.
- Yeah, exactly, and once all that's sorted,
time to get yourself down to that race start
and to do your thing.
Now, you want to make sure exactly what you're doing,
where you're going, what time you need to be
in certain places, and also make sure
that you have kit ready for after the race.
Now also do make sure you get there with plenty of time
because you probably want to put things like
bottles on your bike, make some last minute preps,
pump up your tires, all of those sort of things.
- It is an awful lot of stuff to remember,
but these are all crucial things
for getting yourself nice and stress-free race day.
- Yeah, now obviously this is just sort
of a general overview of some classic scenarios,
there is no set cookie-cutter way, or so to speak.
So, obviously we've just come up to Frankfurt
used as an example, but we'd obviously
love to hear from you guys to hear
if you've got any suggestions for race day.
So if you have any, please drop them
in the comment section below.
- Indeed, so you hopefully you've enjoyed this video,
so please hit that thumb up like button if you have,
find the globe on-screen to get
all the other videos that we do on GTN.
And if you want to see a video that we did
about how to run without getting tired,
well you can find that down there.
- Yeah and if you'd like to see our video
on heart rate zones and how to use them,
you can watch that by clicking just up here.